Monochrome Monsters Attack in Gorilla! and The Tentacle’s Claw
Steve Barton
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Today’s movies just not doing it for you? Wish they’d be a little more black & white, a little less high-tech, a little less… modern? If you liked The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra, you might be interested in two monochrome retro monster movies about a killer gorilla and a giant octopus.
We begin with a movie bold enough to proclaim itself to be IN THE TRADITION OF JIM WYNORSKI, FRED OLEN RAY, AND ROGER CORMAN. Undead Backbrain brings us exclusive word on Late Night Classics presents GORILLA!, writer-director Dave Shaw’s loving black & white horror comedy tribute to the lost art of man-in-a-gorilla-suit-on-a-rampage flicks.
Here’s the money quote Shaw told Undead Backbrain:
“With Late Night Classics presents GORILLA!, I’ve set out to marry the two genres. It’s a black-and-white comedy about a young lady who must turn to some Rat Pack-obsessed elders to help stop a gorilla who is attacking all her friends. Yes, there are some horror elements, but we’re more interested in giggles than gore with this one.”
Sara Duplancic, Francis Fisk, Paul Washer, Sherry Thurig, Mike Kelly, Dave Shaw and Penu Chalykoff (as the Gorilla) star in this currently in post-production homage that really ought to tout itself as being more in the tradition of John Landis, who you should recall started his filmmaking career with the gorilla flick Schlock.
Here’s a teaser trailer for Late Night Classics presents GORILLA!. With all due respect, I don’t think the narrator is correct about this one playing in theaters.
Undead Backbrain also bring us word of yet another campy, retro-styled, black & white throwback to genre films of a bygone era in the form of The Tentacle’s Claw from director, writer, director of photography, editor, executive producer, and star Michael Rigler.
The Tentacle’s Claw is the story of one man’s quest to use the power of mind control to take over the world and the one woman who could stop him.
Dr. Demonious Horlack has set up his laboratory of horrors in a quiet seaside town. The former Nazi scientist has devised a way to control simple creatures using the power of the mind. With the help of his assistant Gunda, he has gained power over a giant cephalopod and is using the creature as his personal assassin.
Fortunately for the people of the planet, there is a schoolteacher, Marie LeMay, living in the same town. As the traumatic tentacle attacks start to take their gruesome toll, Marie begins to unlock innate psychic abilities. Her brainy scientist boyfriend, Professor Dick Goodwin, helps her recognize the potential she has deep within the recesses of her mind. The stage is set for an epic psychic showdown. But can she prevail, or will Dr. Horlack carry out his evil plans to take over the world and make Marie his psychic slave-bride?
Let’s be honest for a sec. Once your parents have doomed you to go through life named Demonious Horlack, you might as well become a mad scientist, cult leader, or some other criminal supervillain.
This shoestring budget tale of world domination and giant octopi is still wrapping production up in Newfoundland but expects to be ready to premiere by January. Here’s a lengthy trailer that will give you an idea of what it’s like to be snared by The Tentacle’s Claw.
Thanks to Avery Guerra for the tips!
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